Hospitality is everywhere… Longitudinal travel perspectives emit the legend of artefacts, the care of personalisation, the warmth of nostalgia, the magic of human interaction, the gold rush of vintage moments, the feeling of eternity; something like the cartes-postales.
It’s been almost one year. A letter was mailed to a farm in Hvammsveit, West Iceland. Long live the protagonist of the story, who had visited the secluded village and the small farm nearby; filled with memories, this voyager from the capital was really eager to send a letter to the beloved farm. Unable to find the exact address, the Icelandic traveller drew the map of the precise location, just ignoring the red marks of digital maps that only pinpointed different places on the water.
Drawing the direction to the farm on the envelope, the traveller decided to add the country, the city and the recipient’s name as such: “A horse farm with an Icelandic/Danish couple and three kids and a lot of sheep”. An extra identifier on the lower right hand corner explained: “The Danish woman works in a supermarket in Búðardalur”.
From Condé Nast Traveler:
The letter was mailed in Reykjavík by a tourist who had visited the Hólar farm earlier in the year, but couldn’t seem to find an exact address, according to West Iceland news service Skessuhornið. The farm is considered a small tourist attraction in the area as it boasts a “mini zoo” where the owners encourage visitors to pet their horses, goats, sheep, pigs, and other animals. It does have an address, but when you search for the one listed on its Facebook page, you’re placed smack dab in the middle of a lake.
A virtual check-in now in Hvammsveit on Facebook shows only 12 likes and 409 visits. Only the farm gets 735 likes for its minizoo at the moment; and the hand-drawn map still made it.
Postal service delivered without address. Against all odds, the intended recipient finally got the message. If that’s not hospitality, then what is?
*Text: based on a story from the world sophisticated travel map, which Alexia Charoupa shared with “the voyager voice” | Photos: Condé Nast Traveler, the voyager voice
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